


Nothing to Do With Jealousy

by ProtoNeoRomantic



Series: Patch Works [19]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Denial, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Infidelity, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Jealousy, Unrequited Crush, Unresolved Emotional Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-13
Updated: 2014-03-13
Packaged: 2018-01-15 13:39:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1306825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProtoNeoRomantic/pseuds/ProtoNeoRomantic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While Xander struggles with his feelings about Cordelia's Past, he tries to be there for Buffy on one of those occasions when Angel is just a little more dead than usual.  Good thing he's not in love with her anymore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nothing to Do With Jealousy

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Who Do You Think You Are?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1235281) by [ProtoNeoRomantic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProtoNeoRomantic/pseuds/ProtoNeoRomantic). 



Xander stared at the answering machine. He needed to call Cordelia back. If he didn’t she would think there was something wrong. Was there? No there wasn’t. He just... didn’t want to talk to her right now. Okay, so that was something wrong, but nothing he wouldn’t get over.

He just... didn’t like thinking of her that way, as somebody else’s girl, as someone with a Past, the kind you had to spell with a capital letter. The fact that she ‘loved Kevin so much,’ that she’d still be with him if only she could, competed for head space with the fact that she’d let someone like Mitch do her just for the sake of doing it, and... with the consequences. Any of these things, by themselves, would have been hard to take. But easier than the fact that they were true all. 

March minus May equals... There was no good there.

He should call Cordelia. He knew he should call Cordelia. Soon, but not right now.

The phone rang again. Alright, that was it. It wasn’t like Cordelia to keep calling like this. She was obviously worried. He had to be a man and answer the phone.

“Hello,” he said.

“Hey,” said Buffy.

“Oh,” he said, disappointed more than relieved.  Really.  He's have said so under oath.  “Hey, Buff, what’s up?”

There were so many answers to that question. “Ghosts are history for one thing,” she said.

“Wow,” he said, amazed, “that’s great! How’d you do it!”

“They did it actually.” She explained the possession and the whole weird scene with Angel and Drusilla.

“So Angel’s dead?” he asked hopefully, almost gleefully.

Buffy faught hard to suppress a wave of anger. She won, mostly.  But her friend’s murderous contempt for her first love struck her as callous, even under the circumstances. “No more so than yesterday,” she clarified crisply. “ _Drusilla’s_ dead,” she explained, “and Angel’s _spirit_ has moved on...”

“But Angelus is as undead as ever,” Xander concluded disappointedly, finally getting it.

“Yeah,” Buffy agreed, “exactly, and he’s not going to be too happy when he finds out Drusilla’s not coming home.”

“I’d be more worried about Spike,” Xander pointed out. “I mean, Angel’s after you no matter what, but Spike and Drusilla? He seemed pretty... devoted to her what with the whole healing-ritual-assassins-fighting-Slayers deal. I don’t think he’s going to laugh this off.”

“Yeah,” Buffy agreed, “but he’s still on the injured list. I saw him just a couple of weeks ago, he couldn’t even stand up. Anyway, I’m thinking we should meet at my house, try to brainstorm a little on what to do next.  Are you doing anything right now?”

Xander should call Cordelia.  He knew he should call Cordelia.  "Nah," he said, "nothing important.  I can come over any time you need me to."

 

**Author's Note:**

> Although everything in this series was originally written against a B/G background, I'm not tagging it when it is neither obvious nor important to the individual work standing alone.


End file.
